PANAJI: The Goa Labour Welfare Board on Thursday launched ‘Stri Sakhi’ scheme to ensure menstrual hygiene for women working in the industrial sector and for their schoolgoing children. The scheme intends to provide sanitary pads through vending machines and incinerators to dispose used napkins.
Briefing media, Labour and Employment Minister Rohan Khaunte said that the scheme will help reduce mental stress and give confidence to women working in the industrial sector including hotels as well as women working in shops and establishments. He said the scheme will also help their schoolgoing children and also bring down absenteeism in schools and colleges and at workplaces.
“Women are prone to reproductive tract diseases and this problem will be addressed through hygienic means,” he said adding that the vending machines will be installed in industrial establishments, schools and colleges besides construction work sites where the concentration of women workforce is more and across different industrial estates throughout the state.
He further said that every female worker and their daughters studying in Class VII onwards will use eco-friendly sanitary pads and dispose their used pads in an eco-friendly manner, which will benefit the health and hygiene of every woman and prevent littering. The Minister said that by April 1, the vending machines and incinerators will be placed at 20 to 26 locations across the state on a trial basis and added that the government has set a target to cover the full industrial sector in the next two years.
According to Khaunte, the labour department will bear the cost of vending machines and incinerators and the running cost will be borne by companies and establishments. The big companies will install these machines on their own under corporate social responsibility initiative and the government will help small companies and establishments. He also said that on the occasion of international women’s day, five-six multinational companies have already installed such machines in their establishments.
The innovative scheme is being implemented in three phases. In the first phase the multinational companies based in Goa and spread out in different industrial estates have been directed to install the vending machines and incinerators in their washrooms for the benefit of their workers at their own cost. Further, the machines will be periodically replenished by the employer and the cost will be borne by them.
In the second phase, representatives of industrial associations from various industrial estates were explained about the scheme and told to identify the units in their respective estates.
In the third phase, the Goa Labour Welfare Board will identify schools and colleges, so that children, especially from the lower strata of the society are able to avail benefit of the scheme.
The Board will bear the cost of installation and replenishment of the vending machines installed in schools and colleges and in locations where it can benefit a cluster of small industrial units.
The Labour Minister said that the idea of having a joint venture with non-government organisations will be worked out so that the scheme becomes successful.
